Receiver coils using High-Temperature Superconducting (HTS) materials are able to achieve higher quality factor (Q-factor) than conventional copper coils, thus higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or shorter imaging time. Ma, “RF Applications of High Temperature Superconductors in MHz Range,” IEEE Trans. on Applied Supercon., 9, 3565-3568 (1999), describes the use of expensive HTS thin film receiver coil for substantial SNR improvements.
HTS wire or tape is later used to fabricate receiver coil. Cheng et al., “HTS Tape RF Coil for Low Field MRI,” Proc. Intl. Soc. Magn. Reson. Med., (2003), demonstrates a 5-inch HTS tape receiver coil, which possesses the advantages of lower cost, enhanced filling factor and flexible coil design over traditional HTS thin films, while significant SNR improvement can still be achieved.
Black et al., “A High-Temperature Superconducting Receiver for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Microscopy,” Science 159, 793-795 (1993), implies that it is most beneficial to use HTS coil for small-size sample or low-field system. Such applications include mice imaging, which is important for basic research and clinical investigations. However, removal of all the electrically conductive materials results in very brittle HTS tape coils. Relatively large recoil force experienced by small-size tape coils makes their fabrication even more difficult.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a method to protect the small-size HTS tape coils such that their fabrication is made easier and thus enjoys the advantages of having a HTS tape coil over conventional copper coils.